


A Bad Dream

by Pathfinder (Coffeeaftermidnight)



Series: Horrors au [2]
Category: Creepypasta - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Psychological Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2019-11-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:47:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21526969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Coffeeaftermidnight/pseuds/Pathfinder
Summary: "You are not here to understand. You are here to obey."Jeff wanted sleep. What he got was an ominous warning from the Tall Man.Part of the Horrors au. Triggers are untagged but can be seen on Tumblr at world-of-horrors.tumblr.com.
Series: Horrors au [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1537990
Kudos: 16





	A Bad Dream

**Author's Note:**

> The Horrors au is a dystopian creepypasta au where creepypasta characters (called Horrors) are at war with normal humans. Horrors have killed a third of the population, and in return, humans execute any Horror captured within three days. Horrors are also under threat from the Slenderman, who has his own goals separate from the needs of the Horrors.
> 
> I actually attempted to tag this for triggers but as I'm posting this on my phone I was unable to do so. Sorry about that.

Jeff was dreaming and he knew that. There was always a small amount of control in them. He couldn't control the paths, the places, the dreams took him, but he could wake up whenever he wanted. Maybe he should've known better, then, when he found himself crawling through an open window, and able to examine the room that met him on the other side of the glass.

A hotel room. One bed, one desk, one tv. Two chairs and a table that he nearly broke getting in through the window. A lower or mid-range room, part of a chain, a crude mashup of places he'd probably seen before. Probably. They all started blending together after a few years.

His stomach clenched as he stepped towards the bed. Jeff touched the pillow, the green paisley pattern on the comforter and pillowcases. Beds like these were hard like rocks, the sheets thin as the toilet paper in the bathrooms. With sick fascination he ran his fingertips over the flat surface of the bedspread. It was cold, and for some reason, he thought back to the warmth of his childhood blankets, before he was reborn.

It'd been over ten years since he'd stayed in a hotel room. He wouldn't even squat in an abandoned one now. They were all probably bugged anyway, cameras and microphones planted in cooperation with the government's desperate attempts to fight the Horrors. In theory, that should keep other people from going through what he did. In practice, there were a lot of dirty cops, and a lot of money to be made in human bodies.

"You're dreaming," Jeff said aloud, as if that would help tear his eyes away from the bed. Should he wake up? He'd only just gone to sleep. His memories of the waking world were fuzzy. If he thought too long about it, he'd definitely wake up. And even knowing a nightmare was probably on the way didn't make the idea of going back to reality any less tiring. So he'd roll with this, whatever it led to.

Jeff pulled his eyes and hand away from the bed. The door was feet away, the golden handle glinting in the dim yellow lamplight. It was cold, pleasantly, under his skin.

It didn't move.

He gripped it tighter. His skin slid over the smooth metal. 

It didn't move. It didn't rattle. He pulled, twisted. Like it was carved from the same piece of wood as the door, it didn't move.

"No," Jeff said, his cheeks cold, his hand numb. "No, let me out."

He didn't expect an answer, but something laughed. Laughter like static in his ears. It was behind him, close enough that a human should be breathing against his neck, but this wasn't, was never, a human.

Jeff didn't move, but he had to look. The hand settling on his shoulder was whiter than his hoodie, whiter than his skin. There was still life in Jeff's paper white. The Slenderman's hand was a corpse.

I want to wake up, Jeff thought, but he didn't.

He tried to wake up, tried to think about where he last laid down, but he didn't wake up.

Let me wake up, Jeff thought.

And the answer came.

_ In time, Jeffery. _

A pale hand covered Jeff's mouth. Jeff screamed. A tendril wrapped around his waist. He was pulled back, feet leaving the floor as the Slenderman yanked him backwards. Jeff reached out, nails scraping the door as he was dragged back.

He was released, hands and dark tendrils throwing him to the ground. He hit concrete. It dug into his hands, through his jeans into his legs. The Slenderman had taken him someplace else.

Jeff moved back before he registered what he was doing, dragging himself along the ground to put distance between himself and the monster. The sun was overhead but he wasn't warm. His arm bumped a plastic leisure chair. He kept moving back until his fingers caught a ledge. Only then did Jeff freeze in place.

And the Slenderman didn't move, standing silent under the sun. It should've been absurd, even amusing, to see him so out of place. But there was nothing funny here. He was eight feet tall and in complete control in Jeff's own head. There was nothing Jeff could do about it. He couldn't even run away.

"What the hell do you want with me?" Jeff's voice spoke over the silence. "Why won't you leave me alone?"

The Slenderman tilted his head. Jeff glanced to the side, to the chain link fence that stood between him and a parking lot of cars. He looked back, and cringed away. The Slenderman was closer now. In the silence, there seemed to be anticipation.

Another glance around, Jeff's pale fingers curling around the smooth edge behind him. Rows of chairs, a shack full of vending machines. In the distance over the tree-lined horizon, storm clouds settled, gathering strength.

"I know this place," Jeff said, looking back at the Slenderman. "Are you trying to tell me something? Bringing me back here of all places?"

It felt like that empty face should be smiling now, pleased. Yes, Jeff knew this place. It was his hometown's public swimming pool. As a child, his parents brought him and Liu almost every weekday during the summer. They would jump in as soon as the pool opened, even if the water was so cold it turned their lips blue. Happier days. Better days.

"I hate you for showing me this," Jeff said, as if it were the first time he'd expressed his feelings towards this being. "What do you get out of this? Are you trying to break me?" His voice cracked. "Why can't you just leave me alone?!"

And again, the Slenderman laughed. Jeff could feel it on his skin, static air crawling over his arms, his neck, almost as if the inhuman being was touching him. Maybe in a way, he was.

"Please." And Jeff couldn't remember the last time he'd said that word. "For God's sake, please-"

But he stopped. The Slenderman raised a hand, the long fingers pointing at something behind Jeff. Jeff's gut twisted.

"What are you doing now?" He said. Fear was stronger than defiance. Jeff looked behind him.

The fence stood between the pool and a playground and a grove of trees. As a child Jeff had jumped between the two areas, laughing with his brother as they played. Now behind the fence stood six figures, hooded, motionless. The proxies.

His mouth dried. Toby was there.

Toby wasn't the first person he'd failed. There was a string of them, a line of bloodstains that led to his useless hands. Toby wasn't the first. But he hurt the most. 

Toby had been his friend, and now he stood in the line of the Slenderman's personal army, a slave to something humans should never have come into contact with. It wasn't really Toby, though. This was a nightmare. The Slenderman could get into his head, but he couldn't bring Toby with him. And even if he could, why would he? The image of his lost friend was just as strong as the friend himself.

Wetness burned his eyes. Jeff tore his vision away. Looking at himself, he found he was on his hands and knees, head over the edge of the pool. Maybe the Slenderman had moved him. Could he do that? Jeff shoved that thought away hard and looked down at his reflection.

But there was no reflection. The pool was dry, drained of water. Empty. Except the more he looked, the more he saw it wasn't.

There were toys on the floor of the pool. Dollhouses, log cabins, colored blocks stacked into the crude shape of a house. Small people scattered around, plastic dolls and green army men, standing up or lying down. In the center, by the trees, there was an ark, like the ones he'd seen in Sunday School. It was different from the others. The front of it was stained bright red.

Jeff narrowed his eyes.

"What is this?"

Water rushed, the once dim smell of chlorine and rust filling his nose. Jeff looked to the side, where liquid rushed to fill the pool. The water was stained with streaks of red.

He couldn't look away. Jeff heard the footsteps clicking on the concrete behind him, but couldn't bring himself to move. The bloody water flooded the pool, and for all the carnage Jeff had caused, something about this made him sick.

The water reached the toy city. The blocks were knocked over. The dolls, arms reaching to the darkening skies, toppled. They should've have floated, almost all the toys should have, but instead, they rested on the bottom, where the red settled on them like mud. The tallest dollhouse crumbled against the water, the plastic walls and tiny chairs breaking into pieces and chunks.

But the ark. It floated. The red streaks brushed against the wood, but didn't stick. As the water grew higher, the waves rougher in the quickening wind, the ark remained. Undamaged, it drifted across the surface of the water, and floated as it was pushed by the wind.

_ I don't expect you to understand _ , the Slenderman said.  _ Not yet _ . 

Jeff felt fingers brush against his head, curling into his hair. The air was going cold from the approaching storm, but inside, he felt colder.

_ It is not your job to understand _ , the Slenderman said. The fingers pet his head, then pulled away.

_ It is your job to obey. _

The bottom of a dress shoe met the back of his head. Jeff couldn't cry out. The shoe pressed down, and the stained water rushed to meet him.

The water was cold, the stains were hot. The shoe pressed down on the back of his head. Jeff struggled. His eyes clenched shut but the water burned through. He screamed and the water filled his mouth. It filled his throat, it filled his stomach, it filled his lungs.

He couldn't breathe.

_ Obey, Jeffery. _

He couldn't do this.

_ I will win in the end. _

He had to escape.

_ You will understand. _

He had to wake up.

And Jeff opened his eyes.

His lungs burned. Jeff choked, breathing in clean air. The world wavered, in and out of focus. As he breathed, it settled into dark shapes - a door, a bed, a person in a chair.

He was awake.

He was safe.

He was in Briar's apartment, the last place he remembered being. The day had been long, and he'd been so tired. Briar offered him her bed but he'd brushed her off, lying down on the couch instead. It should've only lasted an hour. Instead, the world beyond the closed window was dark, the tv was off, and Eyeless Jack was asleep in the secondhand recliner across the room. For a moment, Jeff stared at the demon, watching him breath in his sleep. Breathing like Jeff could, now that he was awake.

He was awake. He was safe.

But it didn't feel like it.


End file.
